Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy and was one of the five Fireside Poets.

Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, then part of Massachusetts, and studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at Harvard College. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a former headquarters of George Washington. His first wife Mary Potter died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife Frances Appleton died in 1861 after sustaining burns when her dress caught fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on his translation. He died in 1882.

Longfellow wrote predominantly lyric poems, known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He has been criticized, however, for imitating European styles and writing specifically for the masses.

Read more about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:  Legacy, List of Works

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    There the wrinkled old Nokomis
    Nursed the little Hiawatha,
    Rocked him in his linden cradle,
    Bedded softin moss and rushes,
    —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)

    Long, long, afterward, in an oak
    I found the arrow, still unbroke;
    And the song, from beginning to end,
    I found again in the heart of a friend.
    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)

    Pride and humiliation hand in hand
    Walked with them through the world where’er they went;
    Trampled and beaten were they as the sand,
    And yet unshaken as the continent.
    —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)

    A feeling of sadness and longing
    That is not akin to pain,
    And resembles sorrow only
    As the mist resembles the rain.
    —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)